UK to probe 'phone-hacking' paper

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow is one of those allegedly targeted by reporters [EPA]

Starmer said he wanted reassurances that "appropriate actions" were taken over the evidence originally supplied by the police, and would make a statement within days.

He said: "In the light of the fresh allegations that have been made, some preliminary inquiries have been undertaken and I have now ordered an urgent examination of the material."

The police said no new evidence had emerged and so it would not be investigating further.

Call for answers

TheGuardian has alleged that John Prescott, Britain's former deputy prime minister, Boris Johnson, London's mayor, and actors Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law were among those targeted in the alleged phone-hacking.

It also wrote that the News of the World had paid more than $1.6m in secret out-of-court settlements to suppress legal cases that would have revealed evidence about the scale of the operation.

Prescott has called on the police to investigate why action had not been taken on the suspected hacking, if it was previously known about.

"For such a criminal act not to be reported to me, and for action not to be taken against the people who have done it, reflects very badly on the police, and I want to know their answer," he said.

John Whittingdale, who heads parliament's culture, media and sport committee, said: "There are a number of questions I would like to put to News International on the basis of what TheGuardian has reported."

The practice of phone-hacking by newspaper journalists was first exposed when the News of the World's royal editor was jailed in 2007, after the phone messages of aides to Prince William, the eldest son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, were tapped.

Andy Coulson, the paper's editor at the time, is now director of communications for David Cameron, the opposition Conservative party leader.

He resigned from his newspaper post after Clive Goodman, the former News of the World royal editor, was sentenced in 2007 after phone messages of aides to Prince William, second in line to the British throne, were illegally accessed.

Coulson said he had no knowledge of the hacking.

News of the World sells 2.9 million copies every week, making it Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper.